Winter is well understood as a signal and opportunity for calming down, taking things more slowly, resting up, restoring and regenerating. It encourages a period for what I love to think of as composting. This new post from Early Childhood Outdoors’ co-director and outdoor practitioner extraordinaire, Menna Godfrey, celebrates our milestone of reaching 100 posts …
A few months ago, in April 2021, Janet Packer and Lindsey Bielby shared some of their vision for Growing Wild Outdoor Nursery at an online meeting hosted by Sheffield branch of Early Education. I was struck by how they framed their approach in practice, towards their core values of wellbeing and sustainability, as a sustainability …
One of the key intentions of Early Childhood Outdoors has been to create a strong and resilient meshwork that brings together the life journeys (both past achievements and future aspirations) of the very many people around the UK and Ireland who hold a strong belief in the importance and value of being outdoors for young …
Outdoor Learning in Carraig Briste & Killegney Early Years Read More »
It’s always fascinating to listen the thinking that sits underneath provision and practice outdoors, and to hear about the journey people have taken and how that happened. A couple of weeks ago, Rachel was part of a small group within the Early Childhood Outdoors meshwork discussing (online) how those involved in all-outdoor nurseries might develop …
Having opened last October to the wettest autumn ever and then had to close in March due to the lockdown Janet Packer, co-owner/manager of Growing Wild Outdoor Nursery in Barnsley, continues to share their fully outdoor journey with the ECO meshwork as they cautiously reopened this June – with the same optimistic surprise that many …
As settings begin preparations for moving out of lockdown towards a new normal, a great deal of anxious thinking and careful planning is being carried out throughout the UK. We’ve heard before from a parent in the Beatle Woods Outdoor Nursery community and in this post, owner/manager Rachel Macbeth-Webb shares a passionate call for us …
Following the shock of having to temporarily close or significantly limit the numbers of children attending during the emergency pandemic response, emotional upheaval and destabilisation for staff is likely – especially in a newly opened setting that is working hard at becoming established. Negative feelings can easily be front-of-mind, perhaps focusing upon what is being …
This week’s ECO blog post is an intriguing reflection about the power of life outdoors as a two-year-old for adding verbal language to his toolkit for thinking and sharing experiences. As a writer, I am very aware of how I run a whole range of word-strings back and forth in order to say what I …
Menna Godfrey describes the depth of experience that a simple puddle can provide How much learning can a puddle offer? Is it okay to allow a child to spend so much time apparently ‘just’ standing in a puddle? What might different individuals get from being able to take as much time as they need to …
So, after 18 months of set backs, we sat in the office at Wigfield Farm, Lindsey and I, waiting to sign the contract for the land that would become our nursery. My hands were shaking by the time the contract arrived at ten past! As we walked back to the car our emotions changed from …
Vegetable patch to Ofsted registration in 4 months! Read More »
